พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าสัจจกิริยาจะเกิดผลได้ต้องอาศัยกุศลที่สั่งสมไว้มากพอจนเกิดกำลังใจ โดยผู้ตั้งต้องเข้าถึงสัจจะในแต่ละขณะปัจจุบันและดำรงอยู่กับกุศลธรรมอย่างต่อเนื่อง เพื่อให้บุญไหลผ่านตัวเราจนมีปริมาณเพียงพอสำหรับกล่าวความจริงและตั้งความปรารถนาให้สำเร็จPhra Ajarn explains that an act of truth only works when one's stock of goodness is strong enough to produce real confidence. The person making it must touch truth in each present moment and stay continuously anchored in wholesome states, so merit keeps flowing through them until there is enough of it to speak the truth and make a wish that can succeed.
Someone asked Phra Ajarn about making an “act of truth” (สัจจกิริยา — sacca-kiriya), citing the Jataka story of Suvannasam: the young man struck by a poisoned arrow who fell as if dead, until three people each made an act of truth and brought him back to life. The questioner asked Phra Ajarn to explain more about acts of truth, and how one is actually made.
The Principle Behind an Act of Truth
To make a genuine act of truth, your stock of goodness () has to be strong — strong enough, in proportion, to give rise to real confidence. From that confidence, the goodness itself begins to guide you: it tells you “you should do this, you should do that” — almost as if the thought arose on its own.
The first requirement is that the person must touch truth itself. Truth here means the reality that appears in each present moment, moment by moment. The truth of the does not appear in the past and does not appear in the future — it exists only moment by moment, in the present. In each present moment, we have to stay anchored in the system of wholesome states.
So if we understand this — that for anyone to have real spiritual power, they must, moment by moment, stay anchored only in the system of goodness, because it is the only system we can truly rely on; no other system can be relied on — then when we abide in that system of wholesome states, the Triple Gem shines brightly within us, we shine within it, and both we and it shine within Nibbana itself, within the One who knows, whose power is beyond measure, beyond counting even in incalculable numbers of Buddhas. This is the essential point. Consider: the moment we shine within the Triple Gem and within Nibbana, and it shines within us in turn, the oneness between us and it — not a hundred, not a thousand, not ten thousand, not a hundred thousand, not a million, but incalculable numbers beyond counting — how immense must that power be.
Keeping the Flow of Merit Going
But while we abide with that immeasurable power, we still need to sustain the connection. That sustaining is what lets keep flowing through us continuously — merit from Nibbana flowing through without a break — and it is this continuously flowing merit that is then used to shape the result we want.
But to keep that merit flowing continuously, this is where speaking the truth comes in: it stretches out the span of time connected to that goodness, so more merit flows through as a result. Once there is enough merit, you speak the truth aloud, invoking it. And once there is enough merit, you state the wish for whatever you want — and that is when the extraordinary happens. So “making a wish” (adhiṭṭhāna) means stating what you want, but that wish has to be backed up by truth.
Confidence Is Your Stock of Goodness
We and that power have to become one and the same — something unwholesome states will never allow: never the confidence, never the belief that it's even possible. So the person who can actually do it, who has the confidence and certainty that it will work — that confidence is exactly the proportion of goodness within them being enough to produce it, enough for them to believe, “just do it, it will definitely succeed.” However you do it, it will succeed. That confidence, right there, is the stock of goodness within that person, and it is what gives them their certainty.